FAR RIGHT BUSH ALLIES DEFEATED IN PARAGUAY-- A VERY SPECIAL PLACE FOR HIM

If you've been following DWT for any length of time, you might remember my trip to Paraguay, where I was hoping to track down the humongous Bush estate in the most remote part of Latin America's least known country. I never did manage to get anywhere near the Bush estate-- it was meant to be remote for a reason and the only way to get there is by private plane and then you need permission to land on their airstrip-- but I did take note of a certain backwardness that might make it very alluring not just to Bush but to many of the potential war crimes defendants from his regime. They were actually selling Nazi memorabilia on the streets of Asuncion.

Well, Paraguay is in the news this morning-- and not in a way likely to please the Bushes. The fascistic-oriented ruling party was deposed yesterday. Fernando Lugo, a former Roman Catholic Bishop-- the "bishop of the poor"-- and the leader of a left-of-center coalition of unions, Indians and poor farmers, beat Blanca Ovelar, who headed the very corrupt far right Colorado Party, widely considered to be in Bush's pocket.

Ovelar, the first woman to run for president in Paraguay, conceded defeat on Sunday night as tens of thousands of Lugo's supporters packed a central square in the capital Asuncion.

"You've decided that Paraguay will be free and independent," the 56-year-old Lugo shouted to the jubilant crowd. "We've made history with these elections!"

The NewStatesman agreed. They termed Lugo's win "a tremendous victory for decent politics and civilised values. It is an immense relief in a country subjected to 34 years of General Alfredo Stroessner’s military dictatorship, to his foreign backers and to the widespread poverty it brought." They also show how the tremendous popular will in Paraguay thwarted the massive vote rigging by the rightists. The BBC says Lugo's victory will lead to major power struggles in Paraguay and in the region. Domestically, Lugo will face a selfish and powerful elite which owns virtually everything while he tries to carry out the kind of agrarian reform that ensures each peasant their own land. And regionally he will have to renegotiate disadvantageous deals with Argentina and Brazil for Paraguay's hydroelectric power. The Bush Regime can be expected to do everything they can to sabotage the new president.